BNZ Literary Awards
Encouraging the best from New Zealand writers.
For over half a century BNZ has been proud to support New Zealand's preeminent Short Story writing competition, which was founded to acknowledge the work of Katherine Mansfield and celebrate New Zealand literature.
The BNZ Literary Awards are for both aspiring and established writers.
For many of New Zealand's famous writers, such as Frank Sargeson, Keri Hulme, Maurice Shadbolt, Charlotte Grimshaw and CK Stead, winning the main Award, the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award, was where it all started.
Entry categories
Entries for the 2012 BNZ Literary Awards have now opened and will close on 30th June.
BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award category
For published writers - $10,000 prize money
Minimum length 1,000 words - maximum length 5,000 words
BNZ Novice Writer Award category
For unpublished writers - $1,500 prize money
Minimum length 1,000 words - maximum length 3,000 words
BNZ Young Writer Award category
For writers who are at secondary school - $1,500 for the student
and $2000 for the winner's school
Minimum length 750 words - maximum length 2,000 words
Or if you'd prefer to post in your entry for the above categories, download the form PDF 919KB
BNZ Short Short Story Award category
A short story of a maximum of 150 words submitted via Facebook - $500 prize money.
Meet the 2012 Judges
Elizabeth Smither - BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award Judge
Elizabeth Smither
Katherine Mansfield Award Judge
Elizabeth Smither has published five collections of short stories: Nights at the Embassy; Mr Fish; The Mathematics of Jane Austen; Listening to the Everly Brothers and The Girl Who Proposed. She also writes novels and poetry. She was Te Mata Estate poet laureate (2001-3) and received an Hon D Litt from Auckland University in 2004 and the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry 2008.
Photograph by Liz March.
Writing tips PDF 63KB
Laurence Fearnely - BNZ Novice Award Judge
Laurence Fearnely
Novice Award Judge
Laurence Fearnley has published eight novels. Her second novel, Room, was short listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2001 and Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the 2008 Montana Book Awards. The Hut Builder was short listed for the international 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain writing and won the fiction category at the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards.
She lives in Dunedin with her husband and son.
Writing tips PDF 55KB
Eleanor Catton - BNZ Young Writer Award Judge
Eleanor Catton
Young Writer Award Judge
Eleanor Catton wrote her debut novel The Rehearsal when she was 22 years old. First published in New Zealand by Victoria University Press, The Rehearsal went on to receive international prizes and acclaim, including a longlisting for the 2010 Orange Prize, the UK Society of Authors Betty Trask Award, and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. It has now been translated into thirteen languages. Eleanor Catton studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa. In 2012 she will be the University of Auckland Writer-in-Residence. She lives in Wellington.
Photograph by Robert Catto.
Writing tips PDF 109KB
Graham Beattie - BNZ Short Short Story Award Judge
Graham Beattie
Short Short Story Award Judge
A former bookseller, former Managing Director/Publisher of Penguin Books NZ Ltd., and Scholastic NZ Ltd. Graham now works as full-time book reviewer, book blogger and judge of book awards as well as doing occasional consultancy work within the book industry.
Writing tips PDF 37KB
Past winners
Winners in 2011
Winners in 2011
BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award Winner 2011
Gemma Bowker-Wright
Winner's bio PDF 60KB
Winning Story - Katherine PDF 984KB
Judge's report PDF 299KB
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 Owen Marshall - Katherine Mansfield Award Judge
Novelist, short story writer and poet Owen Marshall has written, or edited, twenty four books, most recently a collection of poetry, `Sleepwalking In Antarctica.' His work, has been published and broadcast in various countries overseas.
Awards for his fiction include the New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters, The American Express Short Story Award, Fellowships at the universities of Canterbury and Otago, and the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in Menton, France. He received the ONZM for services to literature in the Queen's New Year Honours, 2000. His novel `Harlequin Rex' won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction in the same year, and was later translated and published overseas. In 2002 the University of Canterbury awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, and in 2005 appointed him an adjunct professor. In 2003 he was the inaugural recipient of the Creative New Zealand Writers' Fellowship (since renamed the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship). He was President of Honour of the New Zealand Society of Authors 2007/8, and is presently on the Board of the New Zealand Book Council. Marshall has spent almost all his life in South Island towns, and has an affinity with provincial New Zealand.
Photograph by Liz March.
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BNZ Novice Writer Award Winner 2011
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Toni Spencer
Winner's bio PDF 100KB
Winning Story - Rainbow Fishing PDF 577KB
Judge's report PDF 273KB
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 Rachael King - Novice Award Judge
Rachael King has published two novels, The Sound of Butterflies (2006) and Magpie Hall (2009). She is the recipient of the NZSA Hubert Church Award for best first novel at the Montana Book Awards, the Lilian Ida Smith Award and the Ursula Bethell Writer’s Residency at Canterbury University. Her work has been widely published and translated into nine languages. She currently lives in Christchurch and is working on a novel for children. |
BNZ Young Writer Award Winner 2011
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Chiao Lin
Winner's bio PDF 89KB
Winning Story - The Wrong One PDF 213KB
Judge's report PDF 497KB
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 Penelope Todd - Young Writer Award Judge
Penelope Todd, is the author of several YA novels, a memoir, and the novel Island. She has worked in recent years as an editor at Longacre Press and for Gecko Press. She is a freelance manuscript consultant and editor whose digital-first publishing enterprise is rosamirabooks.com.
Her website is penelopetodd.co.nz.
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BNZ Short Short Story Award Winner 2011
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James Francis
Winner's bio PDF 89KB
Winning Story - Whoo eh! PDF 106KB
Judge's report PDF 77KB
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 Graham Beattie - Short Short Story Award Judge
A former bookseller, former Managing Director/Publisher of Penguin Books NZ Ltd., and Scholastic NZ Ltd. Graham now works as full-time book reviewer, book blogger and judge of book awards as well as doing occasional consultancy work within the book industry. |
Winners in 2010
Winners in 2009
Winners in 2008
Winners in 2007
